When an aircraft is located upon the ground and is being serviced, various services are required to be supplied to the aircraft, such as, for example, electrical power, pre-conditioned air, and the like. In connection with the provision of the pre-conditioned air to the aircraft, a suitable heating/air-conditioning unit is used, and accordingly, a first end portion of the tubular supply conduit is fluidically connected in an airtight manner to the heating/air-conditioning unit while a second end portion of the tubular supply conduit is fluidically connected in an airtight manner to a suitable air inlet port located on board the aircraft. The tubular conduit must be able to perform and remain flexible under various weather or environmental conditions, such as, for example, hot temperatures, cold temperatures, dry atmospheric conditions, humid atmospheric conditions, rain, snow, ice, and the like, and it must be capable of satisfying various operational parameters. For example, the tubular conduit must be sufficiently rugged and durable in view of the fact that it is often moved or dragged over the various regions of the tarmac or the ground areas surrounding the airport terminal. In addition, the tubular conduit must be capable of being easily and rapidly deployed, easily and rapidly stowed, and capable of being stored in a relatively compact state. Still yet further, it is necessary that such tubular fluid conduits be capable of being easily and readily fabricated so as to comprise various or different predetermined length dimensions.
Various means or methods of fabricating such tubular fluid conduits, having such different length dimensions, have been previously proposed, however, such conventional, PRIOR ART tubular fluid conduits are all basically or substantially similar in that separate tubular fluid conduit sections are adapted to be mated and secured together by means of various different fasteners. Examples of such conventional, PRIOR ART tubular fluid conduit systems, and the techniques for fabricating the same, are disclosed, for example, within U.S. Pat. No. 6,443,499 which issued to Jenum on Sep. 3, 2002, U.S. Pat. No. 6,286,876 which issued to Jasperse et al. on Sep. 11, 2001, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,368,341 which issued to Larson on Nov. 29, 1994. As can be readily appreciated from such PRIOR ART patents, separate adjacent sections of the overall tubular fluid conduit are attached together by means of, for example, zipper type fasteners, VELCRO® fasteners, and the like.
It can be further appreciated, however, that while such fabrication techniques are quite satisfactory from the viewpoint of initially fabricating, forming, or erecting the tubular fluid conduit, such fastening means do not truly address the additionally important issues of providing the overall tubular fluid conduit with means for effectively enabling the relatively easy and rapid deployment of the tubular fluid conduit, the relatively easy and rapid stowing of the tubular fluid conduit, or the capability of the tubular fluid conduit to be stored in a relatively compact mode and space. In addition, it is also noted that such conventional, PRIOR ART tubular fluid conduits have a predetermined, constant diametrical extent, and therefore, such tubular fluid conduits can only be utilized in connection with fluid flow systems which employ tubular fluid conduits having a predetermined constant diametrical extent. To the contrary, as is well known, for example, within the aircraft servicing industry, tubular fluid conduits utilized for supplying pre-conditioned air to aircraft being serviced need to comprise tubular fluid conduits which have relatively large and relatively small diametrical extents upon the oppositely disposed end portions thereof such that the tubular fluid conduits can effectively be fluidically connected both to the heating/air-conditioning supply unit as well as to the aircraft inlet port located on board the aircraft.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a new and improved tubular conduit which can be easily and rapidly deployed, which can be easily and rapidly stowed, which can be stored in a relatively compact mode or state, which can have any predetermined length dimension, and which can not only have predeterminedly desired or required diametrical dimensions but, in addition, may have different diametrical extents at the opposite ends thereof so as to easily and readily be capable of respectively interfacing with or attaching to both the heating/air-conditioning supply unit and the aircraft inlet port located on board the aircraft.